Popular

Recent

Love Your Pet but Hate Pet Hair? Tips for a Cleaner Home

If you’re like most pet owners, your dog or cat is a beloved member of the family—one who gives you unconditional love, doesn’t talk back, and only gently reminds you when dinner is late. And it’s not as if pets won’t clean up after themselves—they can’t. But you can minimise the work involved in pet hair cleanup with these tips.

Removing Pet Hair from Furniture

Dog and cat hair holds an electric charge that makes it stick to many surfaces. Here are a couple of ways to remove it from furniture:

• To remove pet hair from wooden furniture, use a soft cotton cloth sprayed with furniture polish or anti-static dusting spray. The spray will eliminate the electric charge, making removal easier and lessening the likelihood that the hair will re-stick.

• To remove pet hair from upholstered surfaces or bed linens, put on a pair of rubber gloves and slightly dampen them. Then run your hand over the surface—the hair will stick to the glove. Rinse off the glove when it’s full of hair and remoisten as needed.

Removing Pet Hair from Carpeting and Floors

If you have a dog or cat, you know how quickly their hair can accumulate. Those big balls of hair hiding in the corners and matted on the carpet are not only unsightly, but also hold allergens and dust. Keeping your home attractive and healthy may require you to vacuum daily—especially if you have a long-haired pet or more than one furry friend in the house.

If daily vacuuming sounds like too much of a chore, consider purchasing a robotic vacuum. These automatic devices can do their cleaning without you and can be a great convenience if you have a pet. Just make sure you get one with the proper features.

Robotic Vacuums Built for Pet Hair

Look for a robotic vacuum that’s been especially developed to pick up pet hair. Samsung’s NaviBot models use a patented technology designed to pick up pet hair better and prevent it from getting wrapped around the vacuum’s brushes. This minimises the need for manual maintenance—it ensures the efficiency of the vacuum without requiring you to untangle hair repeatedly.

Your vacuum should also have a HEPA filter, which helps trap fine particles of pet dander, other allergens, and dust so they aren’t redistributed into the air. This is especially important if you have allergic or asthmatic friends or family members. With a washable HEPA filter, you can make sure the filter is particle-free before or after a heavy cleaning.

The smarter your robotic vacuum is, the more pet hair it will pick up. NaviBot vacuums’ Spot Mode can thoroughly clean your dog’s or cat’s favourite sleeping place on the carpet, while Edge Mode helps to ensure that those tufts of hair in the corners don’t escape vacuuming. The NaviBot’s Virtual Fence option lets you restrict the vacuuming area—keeping the device away from your pet’s food and water dish, for example.

Don’t Wear Your Pet’s Hair

Pet hair can easily get embedded in clothing fibres. That’s why sticky lint rollers are usually more effective than lint brushes for removing it. In a pinch, wrap transparent adhesive tape or masking tape around your palm, sticky-side out, and dab the tape at your clothing. (Don’t use duct tape or electrical tape, which may leave a residue). If there’s a lot of hair on the clothing, you may want to first use the dampened rubber glove method described above, and then finish with the lint roller.

Don’t let messy cat or dog hair diminish your enjoyment of your otherwise-lovable household pet. Once you’ve streamlined your removal methods, you’ll spend more time playing with your pets and less time cleaning up after them.